Modern nations currently produce more waste than at any other time in history. Much of the waste comes from plastic and/or metal, which decomposes at a very slow rate. These materials must be recycled, dumped into the oceans or waterways, or deposited into landfills where they will remain for centuries. Unfortunately, plastic dispensing containers are used in almost every consumer market.
In order to reduce the waste in our ever-filling landfills, it is advantageous to create containers that are biodegradable and/or compostable. In an attempt to provide a more degradable container, the use of plastics such as polylactic acid polymers (PLA) have become more commonplace. However, such plastics still require specialized processes and facilities for degradation, which results in significant costs. In addition, PLA and similar plastics are visibly indistinguishable from normal plastics. This can be problematic because plastic products are not easily ascertainable as biodegradable and if the PLA is inadvertently placed within a group of traditional plastics to be recycled, the PLA can interfere with the entire recycling process.
Plastic container systems with caps and lids are widely known in consumer goods and products. Closed end flexible tubes with a dispensing nozzle (i.e. restricted diameter aperture) are well known for viscous products including but not limited to toothpaste, paints, cosmetics, creams, adhesives, polishes and food products such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise because they conveniently provide for multiple uses. Tubes of this kind are generally made of thin flexible layers of plastic, paper with rubberized coating, or metal (such as aluminum), and/or combinations thereof, and usually have a plastic or metal screw or flip top. U.S. Pat. No. 548,890 to Scales, U.S. Pat. No. 2,119,926 to Quittner, U.S. Pat. No. 2,430,046 to Dreyfus, U.S. Pat. No. 2,386,498 to Ostrander, U.S. Pat. No. 3,307,738 to Scheindel, U.S. Pat. No. 353,714 to Trecek, U.S. Pat. No. 3,347,419 to Brandt, U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,825 to Kincaid, U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,396, and US20050023184 to Ramet are examples of prior art tubes. Millions of flexible “paste” tubes are being used and discarded on a daily basis, adding significantly to the current landfill problem. Metal and plastic flexible “paste” tubes are not biodegradable, and plastic “paste” tubes and plastic screw caps may persist in the environment for hundreds of thousands of years.
Unlike PLA-based containers, paper containers are easily ascertainable as biodegradable. There are paper based containers in the prior art, including for example the disposable dispensing container of US2007/0131713 to Hill. In addition, EP1035025 to Lowry teaches a container having a body and a cap that is made substantially out of paper, but like Hill uses some sort polymer or foil as a liner for rendering the container impermeable to its contents. The use of foils and polymers in Lowry impart biodegradability issues and still contribute to our landfill problem. US20050023184 to Ramet also teaches a tube having a fibrous outer layer, but the tube has an inner layer made of non-biodegradable materials and the cap is also non-biodegradable.
It is also known to coat paper to render it impermeable to liquids. U.S. Pat. No. 7,344,784 to Hodson discusses fibrous sheets that can be impregnated or otherwise coated with polymers or blends to provide resistance to liquids. Hodson contemplates that the coated sheets can then be used to manufacture many articles including jugs and cups.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,048,975 to Tojo teaches a pulp molded container that utilizes a synthetic resin (like an acrylic resin) coating on the inner surface of the container for rendering it impermeable to its contents. Tojo makes a significant improvement over the previous paper containers by molding pulp fibers; but like Hill and Lowry, Tojo's synthetic resin imparts biodegradability issues. Still further, Tojo contemplates that a molded cap can be used with the container, but Tojo fails to contemplate the cap being coated. Similar to Tojo, is the 360 paper water bottle from Brand image, which is depicted at http://www.brand-image.com/en/#.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,164 to Sullivan teaches a biodegradable dispenser that uses inner and outer sleeves of paper to house a product in stick form. Sullivan contemplates coating the inner surface of the concentric peel-off sections of the inner sleeve (which defines the product lumen) to render it impermeable to the product. However, Sullivan fails to contemplate coating other areas of the inner sleeve, or the cap portion of the outer sleeve. Thus, like Tojo, Sullivan fails to contemplate a paper container having a coated cap.
The extrinsic materials discussed herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
Thus, there is still a need for a biodegradable container having a closable end, wherein the container and the closeable end are substantially impermeable to a semi-solid composition.